Marvel Preview Review for February Part 3 of 3

Today, the conclusion...

WEST COAST AVENGERS: ASSEMBLED PREMIERE HC
Written by ROGER STERN, ROY THOMAS & BOB HARRAS
Penciled by BOB HALL, AL MILGROM, DON HUDSON & LUKE MCDONNELL
Covers by BOB HALL
Collecting WEST COAST AVENGERS (1984) #1-4, IRON MAN ANNUAL #7 and AVENGERS #250 -- plus material from AVENGERS #239, #243-244 and #246; and AVENGERS WEST COAST #100. 208 PGS./ $29.99
Lee: This book poses a unique problem for me. On one hand, I liked the WCA mini-series and first year or so of the series. It isn’t great by any stretch but it is light and fluffy superhero action. But this collection isn’t all WCA. It’s stuff collected from all over the place including bits and pieces of issues. It makes no sense. Why Marvel just couldn’t collect this as the mini-series and the first 6 or so issues of the regular series is beyond me.
Jim: I have no clue. I can only assume the storyline they are piecing together is being used in an upcoming arc in current continuity.

SPIDER-MAN: THE COMPLETE CLONE SAGA EPIC BOOK 1 TPB
Written by J.M. DEMATTEIS, TOM DEFALCO, HOWARD MACKIE, TERRY KAVANAUGH & TOM LYLE
Penciled by MARK BAGLEY, SAL BUSCEMA, TOM LYLE, RON LIM, TOM PALMER, PHIL GOSIER, STEVEN BUTLER, LIAM SHARP & JOHN ROMITA JR.
Collecting AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1962) #394; SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN (1976) #217; SPIDER-MAN (1990) #51-53; SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED (1993) #7; WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #117-119 and SPIDER-MAN: THE LOST YEARS #0-3.432 PGS./Rated T+ …$34.99
DEADPOOL & CABLE ULTIMATE COLLECTION BOOK 1 TPB
Written by FABIAN NICIEZA
Penciled by PATRICK ZIRCHER, MARK BROOKS, SHANE LAW & CHRIS STEVENS
Collecting CABLE & DEADPOOL #1-18. 440 PGS./$39.99
Lee: And, now that Marvel is producing massive hc’s on a regular basis, they can start producing massive tpb’s too! These are both huge books collection a whole lot of issues all at once. Now, if they would reprint a series that I cared about more I might actually buy them.
Jim: Marvel is trying all sorts of different formats. As a collector I prefer some level of consistency. As for stuff you actually want to read Marvel is running out of that material.

NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF H.A.T.E. ULTIMATE COLLECTION TPB
Written by WARREN ELLISPenciled by STUART IMMONEN
Cover by STUART IMMONEN
The Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort, or H.A.T.E. (a subsidiary of the Beyond Corporation©) put NEXTWAVE together to fight Bizarre Weapons of Mass Destruction. When NEXTWAVE discovers that H.A.T.E. and Beyond© are terrorist cells themselves, and that the BWMDs were intended to kill them, they are less than pleased. In fact, they are rather angry. So they make things explode. Lots of things. Starring Monica Rambeau (formerly Captain Marvel and Photon), Aaron Stack (Machine Man), Tabitha Smith (X-Force’s Meltdown), monster-hunter Elsa Bloodstone and The Captain! If you like anything, you will LOVE NEXTWAVE! BOOM! This new collection also includes all the hilarious letters pages! 312 PGS./$34.99
Lee: I already have this in hc but if you haven’t read Nextwave before then you need this. It was an excellent series that was just great. And unlike a many of Ellis’s other series actually had an ending. Well worth the $35.
Jim: But this is the first time the entire series is being collected, which is what I was waiting for.

DOMINIC FORTUNE TPB
Written, Penciled, Cover by HOWARD CHAYKIN
This volume also includes stories from Fortune’s earliest days in the Marvel U and Howard Chaykin’s Dominic Fortune digital comic, for the first time in print! Collecting DOMINIC FORTUNE #1-4, DOMINIC FORTUNE DIGITAL COMIC #1-6, MARVEL PREMIERE #56 and material from MARVEL PREVIEW #2.
Lee: Ok, this is a classic mis-pick that’s morphing into something else. First, the only reason I picked this was because I thought it was the early, early Chaykin DF material. It’s not, it’s just two very old issues and stuff from last month. I’m sure it’s fine. But the Digital Comic is something else entirely. It’s written by Dean Motter with art by Greg Scott! That’s ‘conveniently’ forgotten in the ad copy. I would not be happy to find out this wasn’t all Chaykin when I got the book. And, as a topic for another day…a digital comic subscription is $5/month. Seriously???? That’s $60 a year (I’m a math genius). That’s a rip off.
Jim: I believe the digital comic subscription gives you access to thousand of old Marvel titles and multiple current books and digital exclusives. It is not for one comic.

THOR BY DAN JURGENS & JOHN ROMITA JR. VOL. 2 TPB
Written by DAN JURGENS
Penciled by JOHN ROMITA JR.,JOHN BUSCEMA & DAN JURGENS
Cover by JOHN ROMITA JR.
Collecting THOR (1998) #9-13 and THOR ANNUAL 1999.184 PGS./$24.99.
Lee: This is one of the classic runs on Thor and Marvel is just putting it out in paperback. This seriously needs a hardcover! Maybe a big hc like Iron Man is getting this month. That would be cool.
Jim: I never read Jurgens run on Thor. If it was good this might be something for me to pick up.

ESSENTIAL DAREDEVIL VOL. 5 TPB
Written by STEVE GERBER, CHRIS CLAREMONT, GERRY CONWAY, TONY ISABELLA, BOB BROWN, LEN WEIN & MARV WOLFMAN
Penciled by RICK BUCKLER, SYD SHORES, DON HECK, JIM STARLIN, BOB BROWN, SAL BUSCEMA & GENE COLAN
Collecting DAREDEVIL (1964) #101-125 and MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #3.488 PGS./$19.99
Lee: This was an interesting time for Daredevil. He was still good but quickly sliding into mediocrity. This is ok and worth reading if you can find it cheap. But, very soon, Marvel will get to the Miller DD run and I’m excited to see Miller’s work in b&w.
Jim: Not in an Essential format I'm not. If you want Marvel to do Miller in B&W, they need to do it right. This period was more crappy then good.

Lee: Same old, same old for new issues but a banner month for trades. Between the Avengers Masterworks and Death of Captain Marvel, I'm loving it.
Jim: Still too much of what we are happy about is stuff we read years ago and not enough of it is excitement about new books.